A resume is an ad about Brand You. It tells a potential employer how you are going to be beneficial for his organization. Don’t you think it should speak aloud to convince your employer to award you with an interview call?
How to write a good resume is a challenge worth embracing. The reward is your dream job. It, therefore, makes sense that you spend a few hours on your cv. More so, if you wish to have a checkered career.
Some homework is mandatory before you sit down to write your cv. Gather all the facts and details about the job you are applying and the organization that is offering it. You may get the job hands down if you do this it right. Remember to pay special attention to the keywords that appear in the requirement. Responsible and responsive, ability to think on feet, team player, result oriented, multitasking etc.
Establishing a correlation between your skills and past experiences, and job requirement is a prerequisite to writing an effective cv. A clear cut idea of the responsibilities can help you a cut out a customized resume that will be difficult to ignore. Even a novice out for their first job can score a point over more experienced candidates if they highlight their academics in the light of job expectations.
Keep handy all your personal details. They should be bare minimum – name, age, contact number. Also arrange for a couple of good, credible references for which you have already taken the permission to use. Again if it is your first job, you may use names of your principal, neighbor, or any other person who knows you well. Do not use the names of your immediate relatives.
Use a functional format if you have some unemployment period in you work history. However, leave such gaps to be explained later in your interview. In case of continuous work history or first job, please stick to chronological format. Which format of cv is better is not the subject matter of this article.
Integrate all keywords that you found in the ad in your resume. Give preference to active voice and action words. A resume should never exceed a single page, whenever possible. The recommended and popular fonts are Arial or Times New Roman, and font size 12. Do not use many fonts and sizes. Fancy and funny fonts are a big no.
Go through your resume once it is final. Does it relate to the job you are applying? How would you react to such a cv? Would you call the candidate or just trash it? Be honest and objective. This step is crucial and you would do better if you take help of some senior.
If you are submitting your cv online, do it only on a couple of web sites – Hotjobs and Monster. In your anxiety to get a job sooner, do not be tempted to post your resume to hundreds of sites. It will only mar your chances of getting a good job.